Knife-sharpener for cloth-cutting machines.



H. MAIMIN & H. B. BIA'TJER.

KNIFE SHARPENER FOR CLOTH CUTTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 14. I917.

Patented June 4, 1918,

2 SHEETS-SHEET l H. MAIMIN & H. B. BA'TJER;

KNIFE SHARPENER FOR CLOTH CUTTING MACHINES.

APPLICATION FlLED FEB. HI 1917.

Patented J une 4, 1918.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2 @NKD are FEQ.

HYMAN MAIMIN AND HENRY B. BATJ'ER, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNORS TO H. MAIMIN 00., INC., A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

KNTFE-SHARPENER FOR CLOTH-CUTTING MACHINES.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HYMAN MAIMIN, a citizen of the United States, and HENRY B. BATJER, a subject of the Emperor of Germany, both residing in the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Knife- Sharpeners for Cloth-Cutting Machines; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains to make and use the same. v

The resent invention relates to an improved ife-sharpening attachment, for reciprocating knife cloth-cutting machines, of that type in which the grindstones are mounted on a carrier traveling on aguide adapted to be so positioned in front of the edge of the-knife, that the grindstones are brought into contact with the knife edge and are rotated in engagement therewith as the carrier is moved on the guide lengthwise of the knife.

The improved arrangement is such that, during the sharpening operation, the op posed grinding surfaces of yieldingly mounted disk like grindstones are caused to engage the opposite sides of the flexible knife edge, at rather widely separated points, with a. pressure which is not at any time sufficient to chip or otherwise injure the knife edge by clamping or wledging it between the stones, but which is, nevertheless, sufficient, in conjunction with the rather high rate of rotation of the stones provided by the structure employed, to effect a satisfactory sharpening of the knife durimg a single lengthwise movement of the stones along the knife edge. This feature is of great importance in sharpening the vertical knife-edgeof a cloth-cutting machine of the modern type in which the cutting is efiect by a chopping cut on the down stroke of the knifeby an inclined bottom cutting edge and on the up stroke by a vertical cutting edge functioning like a saw, thus making it desirable to form on the vertical edge, by the sharpening operation, fine serrations all inclined in the same direction.

Furthermore the preferred arrangement is such that the stones may conveniently be mounted with considerable lateral play with-v out excessive pressure and free from all clamping or'binding action; and may read-' Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented June 4:, 1918.

Application filed February 14, 1917. Serial No. 148,536.

ily be adjusted angularly to bring their grinding surfaces into the most elfective sharpening relation to the knife edge.

The preferred arrangement also permits the easy alteration of the ear ratio between the driving rack on the gulde and the driven with the new sharpening attachment; Fig. 2

is a front elevation thereof; Fig. 3 is an en larged elevational View, showing the carrier,

the upper part of the guide on which the carrier reciprocates and the stones in their relation to the knife-edge; Fig. 4 is a section on the line H of Fig. 3, with the shaft or axial element which carries the stones turned to the horizontal position; Fig. 5 is a section on the line 55 of Fig. 3, with the axial element likewise in the horizontal position,

and with the handle removed; Fig. 6- is a detail View showing in top plan parts of the stone in sharpening. engagement with the knife; Fig. 7 is a rear view of the slide-member of the carrier with the stone-supporting member shown in dotted lines; Figs. 8 and 9 are respectively a top plan view and a central sectional plan of the slide member; and Figs. 10 and 11 are views showing details of rlaconstruction of the vertical guide'and the rac The Vertical guide comprises a pair of parallel guide rods 12, the upper ends of which are anchored in an attaching piece. 13 pivotally connected to a bracket 14 secured to the motor frame of the cloth cutting machine. A suitable'device 15 is secured to the base-plate of the machine to receive the lower ends of the slide rods 12 when the sharpening attachment is lowered, to deter-' mine the proper position of the vertical guide with respect to the knife blade when .the attachment is in use, and it will be obtoward and away therefrom.

' carrier-19 is formed a wide pinion 20 which meshes with a spur gear 21 forming part of a multiplying geartrain. This spur gear is secured to a beveled gear 22 which meshes with the main driving gear 23. Main driving gear 23 is fast on a shaft 24 to which is secured a crank handle 25.

In order to urge the beveled working faces of the stones toward each other resiliently, expansible coil springs l9 are positioned on the stone carriers 19 and interposed between the stones and U-shaped straps 26. These straps also serve as stops to prevent axial movements of the stones to an extent sufficient tomove the pinions 20 out of mesh with the. spur gears 21.

A pinion 27 is'made fast, by means of a set screw 28, to the shaft 24 which carries the main driving gear 23. This pinion} meshes with a rack 29 which is arranged lengthwise with the guide rods 12 and which is anchored to the piece 13 by means of a set-screw 30 as shown very clearly in Figs. 10 and 11-. Stone-support member 17 may be angularly adjusted on slide member 16 by a rotation about the axis of shaft 24, within the limits fixed by the arcuate slots 31 shown most clearly in Figs.2and 7. Setscrews are provided as indicated in Fig. 2 to coact with the arcuate slots 31 so that the stone-support member 17 may be clamped fast on the slide member 16 when the stones are arranged with their grinding faces in proper relation to the vertical cuttin edge of the knife,.the location of which e ge coincides substantially with the line 5--5 drawn in this Fig. 3.

The operation of the mechanism above described is as follows: When the knife is to be sharpened, the sharpening attachment is swung down from the broken line position to the full line position, andthen to a .-position where the knife blade is inserted between the stones and the stones have been moved against springs 19" to assume the broken line positions'of Fig. 3. Preferably the carrier is at the upper end of the guide when the guide is arranged vertically and the stones have engaged the knife edge. When the guide is thus adjusted, the crank handle 25 is rotated in the proper direction to cause the carrier to travel down the ver- 'tical guide, both stones simultaneously rotating in opposite directions as the carrier descends and rotating at peripheral speeds very much greater than the speed of descent of the carrler.

It will be noted that upon loosenin the screw 30 the rack 29 may be remov and upon loosening the screw 28 the pinion 27 may be removed without dismounting any other working part of the attachment; the springs 19 permitting the stones to be rather widely separated if such separation should be necessary to facilitate removal of the pinion 27. A substitute pinion and a cooperant rack, having a speed ratio different from the speed ratio of the pinion and rack just removed, may be incorporated as operative elements in the attachment with equal convenience. It will be understood that the reater the number of revolutions which t e pinion 27 performs during one complete descent .of the carrier, the greater the grinding and sharpening effect of the stones, that is, the greater the total number of revolutions of the stones during said descent of the carrier. By providing a construction whereby one gear pair comprising a rack and pinion may be readily substituted for another of different pitch,-

the sharpening attachment may be set at any time with ease and despatch to predetermine its sharpening action upon a particular kind of knife blade and with due regard to the nature and thickness of the pile of goods to which that knife blade is to be applied.

I claim:

1. A knife sharpening device comprising a guide, positioning means for the guide comprising coacting parts carried by the machine and the uide whereb the guide may be first angu arly moved rom an out of the way inoperative position to a position where the uide is arranged parallel with the edge of the knife to be sharpened and then bodily moved in parallelism with the knife toward the same, a carrier reciprocable on the guide and carrying grindstones arranged to make simultaneous contact with the two sides of the edge of the knife, and cooperating driving elements on the guide and grindstones making driving engagement to rotate the grindstones in contact with the edge of the knife as the carrier is reciprocated on the guide.

2. A knife-sharpening device-comprising a guide, positioning means for the guide com rismg coacting parts carried by the mac inc and the ide whereby the guide may be first angu arly moved from an out of the-way inoperative position to a osition where the guide is arranged paral e1 with the edge of the knife to be sharpened and then bodily moved in parallelism with the knife toward the same, a carrier reciprocable on the guide and carrying grindstones arranged tomake simultaneous contact with the two sides of the edge of the knife, cooperating driving elements on the guide and grindstones making driving engagement to rotate the grindstones in contact with the edge of the knife as the carrier is reciprocated on the guide, the element on the guide ing being a rack, and operative connections between said driving elements comprising a gear on the carrier meshing with the rack and multiplying gearing interposed between said gear and the stones whereby the stones maybe rotated a great number of times dura single lengthwise movement of the stones along the knife edge from top to bottom thereo 3. A knife-sharpening device comprising i a guide, positioning means for the guide comprising coacting parts carried by the machine and the guide whereby the guide may be first angularly moved from an out of the way inoperative position to a position where the guide is arranged parallel with the edge of the knife to be sharpened and then bodily moved in parallelism with the knife toward a the same, a carrier reciprocable'on'the guide and carrying grindstones arranged to make simultaneous contact with the two sides of the edge of the knife, cooperating driving elements on the guide and grindstones mak ing driving engagement to rotate the grindstones in contact with the edge of the knife as the carrier is recip'rocated on the guide, the element on the guide being a rack, operative connections between sald driving elements comprising a gear on the carrier meshing with the rack and multiplying gearing interposed between said gear and the stones whereby the stones may be rotated a great number of times during a single lengthwise movement of the stones along the knife edge from top to bottom thereof, and spring means associated with the grindstones for yieldingly urging the stones against th knife durin rotation of the stones.

4. A kni e-sharpening device comprising a guide adapted to be ositioned in substantial parallelism with t e edge of the lmife to be sharpened, a carrier reciprocable on the guide and carrying grindstones arranged to make simultaneous contact with the two sides of the edge of the knife, cooperating driving .elements on the guide and grindstones making driving engagement to rotate the grindstones in contact with the edge of the lmife as the carrier is reci rocated on the guide, the element on the guide being a rack, and operative connections between the said driving elements comprising a pinion meshingwith the rack, the rack and pinion being readily removable so that substitutes of a different pitch may be incorporated in the grinder without dismounting any of the other working arts of the grinder.

5. A knife-s arpening device comprising a guide adapted to be positioned in substantial parallelism with the edge of the knlfe to be sharpened, a carrier reciprocable on the guide and carrying grindstones arranged to make simultaneous contact with the two srdes of the edge of the knife, and cooperating iii driving elements on the guide and grindstones making driving engagement to rotate the grindstones in contact with the edge of the knife as the carrier is reciprocated on the guide, the carrier having associated therewith an angularly adjustable support on which the stones are revolubly mounted whereby the support may be adjusted to bring the grinding surfaces of the stones into the most effective sharpening relation to the knife edge.

6. In a mechanism of the kind described, the combination of a support, a single shaft, a pair of stones mounted for rotation about the shafts axis and relatively movable along the shafts axis, means for urging the stones ing a main driving gear, and apair of duplicate gear trains, each gear train including a gear which meshes directly with the main driving gear andeach gear train also including a gear which is secured to one of the stones.

7 A knife sharpening grinder for the purpose described, comprising a guide, a carrier reciprocable on the guide, a pair of spaced stones revolubly carried by the guide, spring-means yieldingly urging the working surfaces of the stones into contact with the knife edge, a crank, a gear train comprising multiplying gearing operatively connected to said crank and to the two stones whereby the two stonesv may be manually rotated simultaneously, the gear train including a gear rotating more slowly than the stones, and a rack carried by the guide and meshing with such slow gear whereby the gear trainvmay be actuated to reciprocate the carrier on the guide while rotating both stones, the slow gear and the rack bea difierent pitch may be incorporated in the grinder without dismounting any of the other working parts of the grinder.

8. In a mechanism of the kind described,

' the combination of a support, a single shaft,

a pair of stone supports loosel'y mounted on the shaft, stones on the inner ends of the stone supports, pinions on the outer ends of the stone supports, a crank, multiplying gearing including three gear ele' mentsone of which is secured to said crank and two of which are respectively in mesh with the pinions on the stone supports, spring means for urging the stone supports toward each other axially of the shaft, and stop means for limiting the movement of the stone supports relative to each other in response to such spring means, thereby to prevent unmeshing of said pinions and gear elements.

9. In a mechanism of the kind described,

the combination of a guide, a carrier reciprocable on the guide and comprising a slide member for engaging the gulde and a stone-support member mounted on the slide member, a pair of stones revolubly mounted on the stone-support member, these stones having frusto-conical working faces and being spaced apart so that their working faces are opposed, means for urging the working face of the stones toward each other during rotation of the stones, a gearing for rotating the stones, a rack secured to the guide and meshing with the gearing whereby the purpose described, comprising a guide, a

carrier reciprocable on the guide and including a slide member for engaging the guide and a stone-support member mounted for angular adjustment on the slide member, a bevel gear mounted for rotation on the slide support member, a plurality of stones revolubly mounted on the stone-su port member, gear elements secured to tl fe stones, intermediate gear elements operatively connecting the last mentioned gear elements and the bevel gear, spring means for urging the working faces of the stones into redetermined adjacency, a pinion carried y the bevel gear, and a rack arranged lengthwise of the guide and meshing with the pinion, the axis of rotation of the pinion coinciding with the axis on which the stonesupport member is adjustable.

11. In a sharpening attachment for a cloth cutting machine having a reciprocating knife, the combination with a guide adapted to be positioned in substantial parallelism with the edge of the knife, and a carrier reciprocable on the guide and carrying grindstones arrangled to make simul-' taneous contact with t e two sides of the edge of the knife, of a positioning means for the guide comprising coacting parts carried by the machine and the guide whereby the guide may be first angularly moved from an out of the Way inoperative position to a position where the guide is arranged parallel with the edge to be sharpened and then bodily moved in parallelism with the knife toward the same to dispose the working surfaces of the stones on opposite sides of the edge to be sharpened,

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures.

- HYMAN MAIMIN.

HENRY B. BATJER. 

